I made my way towards the joint lab, my latest discovery in hand. Tony was right. He was right about everything. The Tesseract, SHIELD's secrets, how the "unlimited energy for the world" talk was nothing but talk. I heard voices floating in the air as I approached the doorway. "What is Phase Two?" I heard a smug Tony ask Fury, his monitor pulled up towards the man, who looked utterly pissed.
I dropped my recently discovered gun on the table with a bang, grabbing everyone's attention while I glared at Fury. "Phase Two is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the Cube to make weapons," I announced, looking at Tony. He nodded his head with a confident smile, and I briefly returned it before scowling at Fury again. "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."
"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract," Fury supplied feebly. "This does not mean-"
"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony cut him off, causing the angry man to turn his head quickly in the shorter man's direction. He turned the screen, a smirk on his lips as he glanced between me and the director. "What were you lying?"
"I was wrong, Director," I said, trying to keep my voice as even as possible. "The world hasn't changed a bit."
"Did you know about this?" Banner asked as Romanoff and Thor entered the room.
"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" she asked, her tone having a stinging bite to it. I raised an eyebrow, glancing at Tony, who's eyes were narrowed on the strangely calm woman.
Banner laughed humorlessly. "I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."
She took a step towards him. "Loki is manipulating you-"
"And you've been doing what, exactly?"
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you." She took another step towards him as he took a step back, towards the screen that still had weapon plans pulled up on it.
"Yes, and I'm not leaving 'cause suddenly you get a little twitchy." He pulled the screen towards him, studying the blueprints displayed on the opaque screen. I felt Tony join me at my side, turning his head to look at the screen better. "I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction." He looked between all of us, and I raised an eyebrow at Fury, repeating the question.
The director took in a deep breath, knowing he was cornered. "Because of him," he finally admitted, pointing towards Thor.
Thor looked confused, finally joining in the conversation. "Me?"
I felt Tony take in a deep breath from beside me. I looked at him as he straightened his back. He only glanced at me before returning his eyes to Thor.
"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town," Fury reminded us. I nodded my head, remembering the files. "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."
"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," the Asgardian clarified, staring at Fury with confusion.
"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" he shot back, growing frustrated. "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled."
"Like you controlled the cube?" I asked, anger growing inside me the longer he continued to defend his plans of total global dominance.
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor replied to Fury, taking a step towards the man. "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."
"A higher form?" I mumbled, looking at Tony. His eyebrows furrowed and eyes glanced between the two speakers and myself, matching my confusion.
"You forced our hand," Fury spoke, desperate. "We had to come up with-"
"A nuclear deterrent," Tony interrupted, shifting on his feet nervously. "'Cause that always calms everything right down."
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark," Fury growled.
"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep-"
"Wait, wait," Stark cut me off, "hold on. How is this now about me?"
Something in me snapped, and I couldn't help but turn to the man beside me. "I'm sorry, isn't everything?"
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor stated sadly, glancing between Tony and I.
"Excuse me," Fury retaliated, walking around the much larger Asgardian, "did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"
"You treat your champions with such mistrust!" he argued.
"Are you boys really that naive? S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats," Romanoff clarified, trying her best to diffuse the situation but failing miserably.
"Captain America's on threat watch?" Banner asked.
Tony turned on me. "Wait, you're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?"
I took a step closer to the smaller man, my lips twisting into a sneer. "Stark, so help me God, if you make one more wisecrack," I warned.
"Threat!" he yelled, turning around to the rest of the room. No one paid him any attention, too caught up in their own arguments. "Verbal threat. I feel threatened."
I narrowed my eyes, my chest puffing out. "Show some respect."
"Respect what?" he asked, fully facing me as he tensed his muscles.
"What are we, a team?" Banner asked, drawing my attention away from the angry man before me and towards him. "No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're..." he hesitated, "a time bomb."
Fury took a slow step towards the doctor. "You need to step away."
"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asked from behind me, placing a hand on my shoulder.
I turned, knocking his hand off, rage overcoming my senses. "You know damn well why. Back off!" I yelled at him.
"I'm starting to want you to make me," Tony whispered, narrowing his eyes and sizing me up. I felt my chest tighten at his words, my own eyes narrowed as I stared him down.
I let out a low chuckle. "Yeah," I whispered, matching his tone as I circled him. "Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"
Tony glanced around the room, hesitating only a second before looking back at me. "Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."
I couldn't help the dark chuckle that escaped my lips, seemingly making Tony's eyes spark with a burning fire. "I know guys with none of that worth ten of you," I growled. "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself." Tony just stared, his jaw clenched and eyes burning. The feeling in my chest intensified tenfold. "You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on the wire and let the other guy crawl over you."
"I think I would just cut the wire," Tony remarked, looking me up and down.
I smirked, looking back at Banner, who held a questioning look in his eyes. "Always a way out," I muttered, shifting closer to him and meeting his challenging gaze. "You know you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."
"A hero?" Tony repeated mockingly, not backing down. "Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle." He took a step closer to me, whispering the last part. A wave of hurt crashed over me, but it was quickly overtaken by the rage that seemed to suddenly flood my body. Oh, my God, I really needed to walk away.
"Put on the suit," I demanded instead, my common sense flying out the window. "Let's go a few rounds."
Thor laughed, but my eyes never left Tony's. "You people are so petty and tiny."
"Yeah, this is a team-"
"Agent Romanoff," Fury said, his voice now exhausted from this ongoing argument. "Would you escort Doctor Banner back to his-"
"Where?" Banner asked. I let my eyes leave Tony's, watching Banner become frustrated. "You rented my room."
"The cell was just in case-"
"In case you needed to kill me," Banner finished for Fury. "But you can't. I know, I tried." The room went silent, and I suppressed a chill that traveled down my spine at his spontaneous confession. He seemed to realize his mistake, lowering his gaze and softening his voice. "I got low. I didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out." I glanced back at Tony, who stared at Banner with a pained, understanding expression. The anger inside me subsided some, and I brushed my hand against his arm in silent support as I turned back to the doctor. "So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good." He glared at Romanoff. "Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk.
"You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff?" Banner's hand slowly moved towards the scepter, and my eyes widened slightly as I took a step forwards, shielding Tony. "You wanna know how I stay calm?"
"Doctor Banner," I said calmly, one hand extended in a peaceful gesture, "put the scepter down."
He furrowed his eyebrows and looked down at his hand, surprise covering his face when he found the scepter there. A computer in the corner of the lab beeps, drawing my attention away from Banner.
"Got it," Tony mumbled, walking towards it.
"Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my little party trick after all," Banner muttered, putting down the scepter and following Tony.
"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asked, standing beside me.
"I can get there faster," Tony stated, facing the screen before standing straight.
"Look, all of us-"
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard," Thor argued, cutting me off. "No human is a match for it."
Tony ignored him, walking around the counter and past me, making his way towards the door. I quickly grabbed his arm, spinning him around. "You aren't going alone."
"You gonna stop me?" he challenged, not removing my hand from his arm.
"Put on the suit, let's find out." I stepped towards him, so we were now chest to chest. My hand remained clasped around his arm.
"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."
"Put on the suit."
"Oh, God," Banner muttered. Before I could turn my head to fully look at him, an explosion went off. I pulled Tony into my chest as we were thrown back into a wall, quickly turning over and shielding him from the flying debris.
I squeezed my eyes shut as I felt the plane start collapsing around us. I opened them, meeting Tony's brown gaze, golden as it reflected the fire around us, from under me. I checked over his body quickly, then returned my eyes to his. "Okay?" He nodded, so I pulled him up. "Put on the suit."
"Yep," he agreed, and we took off.
"Turn up that engine!" Hill ordered over comms. "Number 3 engine is down. Can we get a run in?"
"Turbine's loose. Mostly intact, but it's impossible to get out there and make repairs while we're in the air."
"We lose one more engine, we won't be. Somebody's got to get inside and patch that engine."
"Stark, you copy that?" Fury called through the comms.
"I'm on it," he replied from beside me. He looked at me. "Find engine three, I'll meet you there." I nodded and peeled away from him, heading towards the engine room. I heard an inhuman roar, and a chill went down my spine as I stopped before the door. Yelling came from inside, and I forcefully pushed the door open, allowing the SHIELD agents who were trapped inside to escape.
The room, if you could even call it that anymore, was blown to bits. The engine room was dead, and a large chunk of the wall was torn off in the explosion. The wind howled in my ear, and my knees felt weak as I stared into the vast, open blue. "Tony, I'm here!" I reported over comms.
"Good, let's see what we got." I watched as his suit flew around in front of me, assessing the damage while he talked to himself. "I gotta get this super conducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors and work on dislodging the debris."
While he talked, I found myself subconsciously backing up towards the wall, trying to put as much space between me and the open space as I could.
"Captain!" My head snapped up to look at Tony. "You good?"
"Yeah, just fine," I mustered out.
"Good, cause I'm gonna need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position."
He flew around the debris, and I stared at the water, pushing down whatever weakness was showing. Right now, I needed to get this done. I took a running start and jumped over the open air, landing safely on the ground. I made my way to the control panel, pulling it out of its spot in the wall. I stared, dumbfounded.
"Cap? What's it look like in there?"
"It seems to run on some form of electricity," I mumbled out, turning my head to the side as if that would help me understand better.
"Well, you're not wrong." He walked me through how to reset the panel, and once it was done, I stood, pushing the panel back into the wall.
"The relays are intact. What's our next move?"
"Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump. I'm gonna have to get in there and push."
I paused. Push? "Well if that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded!"
"Then stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage mag-"
"Speak English," I demanded, approaching the edge to try and catch a glimpse of Tony.
He sighed. "See that red lever?" I turned my head, instantly finding a red lever. How convenient. "It'll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it, wait for my word."
I jumped towards it, landing with a thud. I stood by the lever, and watched a few agents enter the room. One pulled out a grenade, attempting to throw it at the engine. I leaped across the open air, smacking the grenade away from the engine and landing onto a catwalk. The men began shooting at me, and I jumped down, kicking one off the plane and punching the other, knocking him out. More men entered the room and fired at me. I grabbed a gun and jumped back up to where the lever was, returning their fire as I attempted to find cover.
"Stark, we're losing altitude," Fury yelled out, sounding panicked.
"Yeah. Noticed," Tony grunted back.
I stepped back, trying to avoid the bullets of the men firing at me. As soon as I did however, I felt the metal loosen beneath me and my foot slip off the edge. A scream escaped my throat as I grabbed for anything, my fist clenching around a cable. I stared at the water below me, my body shaking, before I began climbing back up the cable.
"Cap, I need the lever."
"I need a minute here," I replied, pulling myself up faster.
"Lever. Now! Oh, no."
"Tony?" No response. "Shit." I pull myself up all the way, crawling across the floor and grabbing the lever, pulling it down. The man below me continued to fire as I rolled over to the wall, out of the way, and watched Tony take the man out. I stood, climbing down to the floor. "Tony?"
"When I say hit the lever, I mean hit the lever," he grumbled, attempting to push himself to his feet. I helped.
"Your arm?" I asked, ignoring his comment.
"Could be better, could be worse." He took off his helmet, holding it in his hand as he looked at me, assessing my nonexistent injuries. "You okay?"
I nodded, doing the same for him. His lip was busted and a large gash appeared on his forehead, bleeding relentlessly. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good."
"Agent Coulson is down."
My eyes widened as I stared at Tony, who was staring at the floor in shock.
"Paramedics are on their way."
"They're here." Tony looked up at me. "They called it."
Tony put his head down again, and I rested a hand on his shoulder. He shrugged it off, walking out of the engine room. I stared after him, listening to the wind whistle in my ears for a moment before following after him.